The Raptors hold a pair of first-round picks for 2017, having acquired the Clippers’ lottery-protected first-rounder in addition to their own. According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Orlando will get the less favorable of those two selections. As our 2016/17 Reverse Standings show, the Raptors’ pick currently projects to land at No. 20 or 21, while the Clippers’ pick would be No. 25, though the standings remain tight.

For the Magic, it’s essentially an admission that last summer’s Ibaka trade was a misstep. At the time, Orlando parted with a package of Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, and a lottery pick (Domantas Sabonis) for the Oklahoma City big man. Ibaka’s value has declined a little as his contract nears its end, but a package of Ross and a late first-rounder still pales in comparison to what the Magic initially gave up for the 27-year-old.

Still, last summer’s trade was a sunk cost for GM Rob Hennigan, who had vowed to be “aggressive” in pursuing trades this month. Reports had indicated Ibaka was unlikely to re-sign with Orlando this offseason, so the Magic were at least able to add a pair of assets that will help the team beyond 2016/17. Ross is under contract at a rate of $10.5MM annually for two years beyond this season, while the player drafted with Orlando’s newly-acquired 2017 first-rounder will be under team control through at least 2020/21. Hennigan will likely continue to be active on the trade market leading up to next Thursday’s deadline.

The Magic are also able to create a modest trade exception worth $2.25MM in the deal. That’s the difference between the 2016/17 salaries for Ibaka ($12.25MM) and Ross ($10MM). That trade exception will expire one year from now.

From the Raptors’ perspective, the deal will give them the stretch four they have long coveted. Although the team has been linked to several other power forwards – including Paul Millsap, Danilo Gallinari, and Taj Gibson – Ibaka’s name has perhaps been the one most frequently connected to Toronto in trade rumors. The Raps reportedly tried to acquire Ibaka during the 2016 draft, offering up their own lottery pick in a package, but were unable to match the Magic’s offer at the time.

Although Ibaka will be a free agent this summer, the Raptors now hold his Bird rights and have every intention of trying to re-sign him, tweets Wojnarowski. With Ibaka and Kyle Lowry both in line for lucrative new long-term deals in free agency in July, it will be interesting to see if Toronto moves another contract or two off its books in order to avoid going deep into luxury tax territory. It’s also worth noting that Ibaka and Lowry share an agent in ASM’s Andy Miller.

In the shorter term, Ibaka will join a Raptors frontcourt that features Valanciunas, Patrick Patterson, and Lucas Nogueira, while Norman Powell will be the top candidate to assume a good chunk of Ross’ minutes. In addition to providing some of the rim protection and rebounding that the team lost when Bismack Biyombo departed in free agency, Ibaka will also give Toronto an outside threat on offense.

Although he didn’t shoot much from beyond the arc earlier in his career, Ibaka has developed into a reliable option from outside, making a career-high 38.8% of his long-distance attempts this season. He’s also averaging a career-high 15.1 PPG to go along with 6.8 RPG and 1.6 BPG.

The timing of the move is good for the Raptors, who have been slumping so far in 2017. After posting a losing record in January, the team is just 2-4 so far in February, and will look to regain ground on the Cavaliers, as well as the surging Celtics and Wizards.

Before the Magic and Raptors struck a deal, Ibaka was believed to be drawing interest from the Heat, among other teams. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe (Twitter link), other offers for Ibaka were believed to be “shockingly weak,” with the big man’s impending free agency limiting his trade value.

How so? Oladipo wasn’t improving at all, so why overpay him like OKC did, Ilyasova wasn’t going to be a part of our plans, Sabonis isn’t going to be an all-star. There wasn’t anyone else that could be potentially great.

Ross will be a great pickup and the pick will be in the mid20s so could get a good role player or use that in a trade for a better player.

Ibaka fits better in Toronto cause he wont be expected to carry the offense like he had to do in Orlando.

Considering the Magic’s desperacy, it was a good haul. Compared to the haul they gave up? No, not at all. Ross has proven to be an inefficient volume scorer who provides value in that he can play/defend multiple positions. Oladipo is still a good defender who has already proven to be a better scorer than Ross. Sabonis is still unproven but looks promising. Can’t guarantee you can get better with the other pick (you might get a better player, you might not).

ha hennigan is so bad, never let a gm halfway out the door make moves that got him on the hotseat in the first place, way to get as much for serge as portland got for plumlee smh. Look at the trade as oladipo>ross & sabonis(11th)> whatever 20 something pick they get. .No one would make that trade . Thunder laughing all the way to the bank. sad to see magic waste so many assets over the past few years like the suns…(fan of neither)

you know he put up 28 points against the rockets last week right ? he would not struggle to score with a play maker like harden feeding him the ball … ibaka anderson ariza gordon harden would be great to close out games.

A comparable offer would have been a first and Sam Dekker. The question is whether Orlando preferred Ross over Dekker. It’s highly probable though that Houston would not be interested in doing that deal, they have very good chemistry this season, Toronto had a much more pressing need to make a move. Especially considering that PF has been a black hole for them this season.

Should be interesting to see what lineups toronto plays. Ibaka would be great at the 5 for them. If I recall correctly, Orlando was interested in Ross a couple of years ago. Toronto has also held off on moving him in the past. Ignoring all the obvious with Orlando, it gives them the shooter on the wing that they desperately need, and gives them that extra pick. At least they got that for a couple of months of Ibaka. That helps Henningan just b/c it probably could have been a lot worse

Agreed. Spot minutes at the 5 with Patterson at the 4 would help stretch the floor and give Lowry/DeRozan plenty of driving lanes, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of a lot of minutes for Jonas V (can’t spell his last name).

Huge gain for Raptors, almost puts them on pace with Cavs, especially is Love doesn’t come back healthy.
Orlando loses this trade no doubt, nothin special about Ross, will be a good role player but Orlando needs way more than that to be respectable

They need to pass the Celtics and Wizards again though and, honestly, I expect both teams to respond. Celtics have an insane amount of trade assets to get a trade done. Wizards probably don’t have as much, but they can always trade a younger player for someone.

As far as Orlando, if Ibaka walks at free agency, then getting something is better than getting nothing. Orlando wasn’t going to offered anything truly substantial for a possible rental player.

Ross can’t play the three. He can’t guard anyone at that position. So much potential, so little consistency. Good luck in Orlando, but I don’t even think I would trade Norm Powell one for one for him. #freenorm

ROSS WILL DO GREAT IN ORLANDO COMPLEMENTING FOURNIER AND GORDON WILL DEVELOP MUCH BETTER PLAYING HIS NATURAL 4. MAGIC SHOULD TRY TO SIGN SERBIAN STAR MILOS TEODOSIC WHO IS EXCELLENT PLAYING BOTH 1 and 2.
GO MAGIC !!

For the Magic, Ross gives them some scoring either in the starting lineup or off the bench and allows Aaron Gordon to play PF. 1st round pick helps, but this move doesn’t really do much to improve Orlando’s chances of making playoffs this year or next year. For the Raptors, getting Ibaka was huge, because it gives the Raptors their best PF since Chris Bosh. The only negative here is they had to get rid of arguably their best scorer off the bench in Ross, forcing the Raptors to rely on Cory Joseph and Norman Powell as their primary scorers off the bench.